A Hot Rodder's Life

I knew from a young age that I was passionate about cars. Specifically, performance cars. Matchbox cars were arriving on the scene when I was about 5 years old. I collected as many as my parents would buy for me. In 1963, when I was 5 years old, I discovered the Corvette Stingray. I could not get enough of seeing them and trying to get close to one to inspect it. In late 1966, when the new ’67 Mustang came out, I got in trouble at school for going out into the parking lot during lunchtime to look over a teacher’s new Mustang. Whatever the punishment was, it was well worth it! Over the years, I collected as many Matchbox Cars and Hot Wheels as I could. When I was 15 years old, Meyers Manx kits came out for VW Bugs, allowing them to be converted into dune buggies. I really wanted one! I bought a ’65 Bug and built a dune buggy, but not with the Manx Kit; it was out of my price range.

Over the years, I sold and traded “up” in pursuit of a real high-performance car, which, for me, was the Corvette. When I sold the Buggy, I bought a ’66 Chevelle SS. The Chevelle sounds a lot nicer than it really was. It was a worn-out car that barely ran, but it was an authentic SS. I sold the Chevelle and bought a ’68 Camaro. The Camaro ended up being my ‘mule’ for trying different performance setups. I had a lot of fun with that car and wish I still had it. I sold it for $800.

During the years I had the Camaro, my brothers had an assortment of cool cars I could drive from time to time. My older brother had a ’66 Chevelle SS that was pretty wild. It was the fastest car I had driven up to that point in my life. He also had a ’69 Chevelle SS that remained stock but could “Blow the doors off any Ford out there.” He later got a ’69 Camaro, which was fun to drive. My younger brother dropped a 350 small-block in a ’73 Vega and later had an ’85 V8 Monza.

After the Camaro, I got a ’77 Monte Carlo, which ended up being my college car. I did not make any modifications to the Monte but drove the wheels off it. My heart was still set on getting a Corvette one day. I finally got my Corvette when I bought a ’78 Vette in 1985, when I still had the Monte Carlo. After the Monte Carlo, I got a ’79 Grand Prix. The Grand Prix was what I call a sleeper, in that it had the big-block Pontiac motor. It looked like a family car but ran like a performance car. I got married while I had the Grand Prix, so it was time to get something more economical. I traded the Grand Prix in for a 1988 GMC S15 Pickup Truck. The S15 had a 4-cylinder engine with a 5-speed manual transmission and overdrive. I drove that truck as my daily driver for almost 300,000 miles when I gave it to my Nephew. During this time, I kept the Corvette. My family was growing, so all my aspirations to hot-rodding were put on the back burner. I was fortunate to have Jennifer as my wife, since she is also a car person. She said she would never tell me to sell the Corvette and supported my long-range plans to build it into a street hot rod. The Corvette sat in the backyard under tarps for many years until we could afford to add onto the garage.

Once the garage was built, I slowly took the Vette apart and bought parts for it as I could afford them. The plan for the Vette is to build it with a Big Block Street Bruiser. The ’78 Vette, on its own, is pretty anemic, so it has to be modified. In the meantime, I picked up some more projects, a 1953 Chevy Wagon, a 1973 VW Super Beetle, and two vintage Honda CT-70 Trail Bikes.

As the kids grew up, they needed cars of their own and education. Money that was planned for the Corvette build was re-allocated mostly to their education. I started the Corvette build in 2002, and I consider it about halfway complete. I finally get to a point where I make good progress, only for hurricanes or other financial needs to come along. The latest setback is the Flood from Hurricane Harvey. I was ready to drop the Corvette body back on the frame until the flood delayed those plans.

Even through all the delays and setbacks, I look forward to continuing the Corvette build and other projects.

Every once in a while, someone will stop to ask about the ’53 Chevy or Bug, and I tell them that they are not for sale; I will build them. I know that is a common thing heard for cars that are just sitting, but in my case, the plans are real, just waiting to save up the money to complete them.